Guido Pella received the last wild card for the ATP of Córdoba, which will start the South American tour of brick dust

Brick Dust’s South American tour, an almost obligatory appointment for Argentine tennis players at the beginning of each season, will kick off in two weeks with the Cordoba open. The fifth edition of the tournament, category Atp 250will be held from 6 to 12 February at the Kempes sports polo and has already confirmed the presence of nine internationals in the main draw. Between them, Guido Pellefinalist in 2019, who will be one of the special guests of the organization, as confirmed this Monday in the official presentation of the competition.

The Bahian, who reached the 20th step of the ranking in August 2019, returned to the ATP circuit last week in Australia, after more than a year of absence due to a chronic right knee injury that ruled him out of the fields for almost all of 2022 (he only played one match at the Montevideo Challenger). Melbourne, lost on debut against Francis Cerundolo.

The long inactivity has left him without a ranking – today he appears in 1,012th place -, so from the Cordovan race they decided to give him a joker card for the main frame.

“We will leave everything to better enjoy a tournament that I really like,” said Pella, one of the great protagonists of the inaugural edition of the Cordovan ATP, in 2019.

That year he reached the final with victories against Paolo Lorenzi, Albert Ramos Viñolas, diego schwartzmann and Pablo Cuevas and fell in his last game against Juan Ignacio Londero.

The other invitation, which was announced a few days ago, was for Juan Manuel Cerundolochampion in 2021 and recovering after a 2022 also marked by the injury.

With the entry of Pella e Juanmathe draw for the tournament will feature nine blue and white rackets, led by top seeded Schwartzman.

The little25th in standings, reached the decisive stage in Kempes in 2020, when he lost the title to the Chilean Christian Garin in three series. The porteño comes from the farewell to the second round of the “great” Australian, where he ended an eight-game losing streak and earned his first celebration since the second round of the 2022 US Open.

The other Argentines playing in Córdoba will be Francis Cerundolo (29th), Sebastian Baez (44th), Pedro Cachin (58th), Frederick Coria (76th), Thomas Etcheverry (79th) e Facundo Bagnis (91st).

The eldest of the Cerúndolos, present at the conference that was held this Monday at racket club from Buenos Aires, commented: “For all South Americans, this tour is essential because it represents a great source of points to start the year well. This tournament is fantastic, my brother won it and I got my first ATP match there in 2019 It will be nice because it will be competitive”.

The Spanish Alberto Ramos Vinolas (37th), Peter Martinez (60°) e Jaume Munar (64th), Italian Fabio Fognini (57th), French Corentin Moutet (62nd), Serbian Laslo Djere (68th), the Colombian Daniel Galan (70th) and the Brazilian Thiago Monteiro (77th) are some of the international rackets that will play in Córdoba.

The ranking will be held between Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 February, with free admission. In that earlier stage, there will be six other Argentines looking to enter the main draw: Camillus Hugh, Federico Delbonis, John Paul Ficovich, Renzo Olive, Facundo Mena Y Nicholas Kicker.